Top 10 Work From Home Productivity and Communication Tools (Pt. 2)

In our previous article, we have mentioned work from home communication apps experienced a tremendous surge in growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Zoom is suddenly ubiquitous, but also receives loads of backlash due to various security breaches.

In today's article, we will continue with the remaining 5 alternatives to Zoom.

Read more: How Is TRG Adapting to the New Normal of Virtual Office Post COVID-19?

Work from home communication alternatives for Zoom 

6. BlueJeans

Another great option for companies with limited budgets. BlueJeans' plans start at $9.99/ host/ month and can hold up to 50 participants in each meeting. 

In addition to virtual meetings, BlueJeans provides services to cater to different needs of a digital workplace, such as BlueJeans Events for livestreaming interactive events. 

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The Enterprise package allows companies to host up to 100 participants, customise meetings links, and come with personal assistants for different queries. For example, an Onboarding Manager that takes users through all the basic steps and best practices, a Customer Success Manager that helps users take full advantage of BlueJeans, and a Technical Account Manager that troubleshoots all technical issues. 

A plus for BlueJeans is its partnership with Dolby, which guarantees consistent audio quality in all meetings. Furthermore, the app allows hosts to break down meeting recordings, create intermission sessions, and instantly capture and share meeting highlights with automated transcription. 

7. AnyMeeting 

Previously named Freebinar. After Intermedia acquired the platform in 2011, its name changed to AnyMeeting and continues to target small to midsize business customers. 

The free version allows up to 4 web participants. The Lite plan costs $9.99/ user/ month and can host up to 10 participants per meeting. The Pro plan costs $12.99/ user/ month, allows 30 participants and heaps of added features, such as meeting transcripts, custom branding, and integrations with third-party apps like Google or Slack. 

The cost of the Pro plan of AnyMeeting is fairly comparable with our previously mentioned platform, BlueJeans, with only an 89c difference. Both options are worth considering for low-budget firms looking for a platform that offers basic conferencing functions. 

8. Google Meet 

Our list would not be complete if we do not mention the Internet's giant - Google Meet, the winner of Garner's "Peer Insights Customers' Choice" 2018. The perks of using Google Meet are its top-notch security and frictionless meeting creation. Team members, clients or anyone can set up and join a meeting via a shared link, an email invite, or join meetings directly from a calendar event. 

Users do not need to install additional plugins or software as Google Meet operates well on most of today's common web browsers. 

Pricing plans start at $6/ user/ month, and instantly users can get access to the vast array of Google's applications and 30GB cloud storage. 

The Enterprise plan costs $25/ user/ month offers unlimited cloud storage and extensive administration controls. 

Another point for Google is its built-in feature for captions that displays the text of the conversation to make it easier for participants to follow meeting discussions. 

9. Ringcentral Meeting 

RingCentral offers an impressive Free starter pack, which allows businesses to host up to 100 participants per meeting and a 40-minute limit for group meetings. 

All content shared across the platform can be stored in Google Drive, Box, and DropBox. RingCentral's paid plans offer meetings reports and call credits. 

The platform is also named Leaders in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications as a Service 5 years in a row. Its all-in-one solution offers a cloud phone system combined with an online meeting, team messaging, and online fax with different tiers of costs to accommodate different companies' needs. 

RingCentral Meetings plans have two tiers: $14.99 USD/ user/ month for the Essentials plan, $19.99/ user/ month for the Advanced plan. 

For the all-in-one option, the Premium package is noted as the most popular, which starts at $34.99/ user/ month. 

10. Zoho Meeting 

Zoho offers all necessary features in one place, from meeting scheduling, RSVP, and reminders. In terms of in-meeting functions, it has all the basic capabilities similar to other options mentioned in this list, such as video conferencing, screen sharing, in-session chat, recording, branding, etc. 

Users can also use Zoho to organise webinars with its webinar solution. Highlights of this option include registrants documentation and analysis, registration form embedding and customisation, and co-organiser assignment. 

Zoho Meeting offers a flat rate of $8/ host/ month and allows up to 100 participants and 10 session recordings for each host. Pricing for the webinar option varies based on the number of attendees.